Discover content from the Talis Aspire Day with the University of the West of England

Our Talis Aspire Days are a great opportunity for those who are interested in hearing more about our products to hear from library teams at customer institutions, from new customers in the implementation stage to those who have been using Talis Aspire for a while.

This time, we co-hosted with the University of the West of England and we got a chance to hear from an academic on their view as an early adopter and also from members of the Talis team on what success looks like with Talis.

The Talis Aspire Days are also a great opportunity for networking, giving the attendees a chance to catch up with peers from institutions including those within the Talis Aspire community. The Talis team always enjoy an opportunity to catch up with you and hear about the latest progress and updates within your team.

We’d like to thank Jason Briddon, Library Director at the University of the West of England for welcoming the attendees and offering some insights into the university and the library’s mission, developments and future challenges. You can watch this below:

During the day we heard from members of the University of the West of England library team, below is a talk from Jackie Chelin, Deputy Director of Library Services who talked about their reading list strategies and explaining why “500 into 4 won’t go!” and how Talis Aspire helped them overcome the challenge of multiple copies. You can watch it below:

A presentation from Amanda Barson, Head of Collections Access and Space and Matt Durant, Collections Librarian on Implementing Reading List Software at UWE helped us to understand what their implementation timeline looked like, how they got academics on board and what engagement has looked like so far. Watch their presentation below:

It was great to hear from not only the library team, but also an academic from the University of the West of England, Dr Sarah Hills. Sarah described herself as reluctant at first as she already had a system using word documents that worked well for her. She now admits she finds Talis Aspire “addictive” and loves that it is a “one-stop-shop”, with everything in one place both for students and academics creating the list. Other things she likes about the list is the improved provision of resources for students with Talis Aspire Digitised Content, which allows her to request digitsations through the reading list items. She has also seen improved communication around the module with other staff in department along with a change in her relationship with the library. Hear other benefits for academics in her presentation below:

As well as hearing from UWE, we were delighted to have Judith Keene, University Librarian from the University of Worcester presenting on ‘Changing Perceptions’. Rather than discuss the details of implementation, she focussed on the unexpected side effects that they experienced at the University of Worcester including changing staff roles and budget allocation. We were delighted to hear the positive outcomes of using reading lists, not just for improved access to resources but in aiding a culture change in the library. Hear more about their experience below:

Great systems are, of course, at the core of Talis Aspire, but the role and value of the Talis Aspire community should not be overlooked. We love seeing our customers help each other, sharing best practice and advice and with the largest community of Higher Education library teams in the UK, Talis is best placed to help foster this community.

Zena Amos, Support Consultant at Talis explained that you are already part of this community and talked through the channels that you can use whether you are a customer or not along with examples of how our customers have received help from other members of the community. She was later joined by Joy Cadwallader, Subject Librarian from Aberystwyth University who told us about the Talis Aspire community from her perspective, the help she has received and the touch points she has found most helpful, from events such as Talis Insight to webinars run by her peers. Find out more about the Talis Aspire community below:

Finally, we heard from Keji Adedeji, Product Manager at Talis who talked us through how we have achieved years of a reliable, robust and proven service and how we are continuing to maintain this level and improve it. Whilst there are always many improvements being made at Talis, Jeremy Baines, Head of User Experience (UX) joined her to explain why we have invested in UX and how this will affect our users and why this change is important. It was great to finish the day on a talk around the future of Talis and how we are solving problems and improving the student and academic experience. To find out more, watch their talk below:

We’d like to thank the team at UWE for co-hosting a great event and for giving us access to their newly refurbished library space. We love hearing from you and learning more about the ongoing and ever-changing challenges that Higher Education libraries face. If you would like to find out more about what was discussed during this event, ask any questions about Talis Aspire or book a demo, send an email to paul.dibble@talis.com.